Daily Archives: 10/16/2017

On this day in 1854, an obscure lawyer and Congressional hopeful from the state of Illinois named Abraham Lincoln delivers a speech regarding the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which Congress had passed five months earlier. In his speech, the future president denounced the act and outlined his views on slavery, which he called “immoral.”Under the terms of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, two new territories—Kansas and Nebraska—would be allowed into the Union and each territory’s citizens would be given the power to determine whether slavery would be allowed within the territory’s borders. It was believed that the act would set a precedent for determining the legality of slavery in other new territories. Controversy over the act influenced political races across the country that fall.Abolitionists, like Lincoln, hoped to convince lawmakers in the new territories to reject slavery.Lincoln, who was practicing law at the time, campaigned on behalf of abolitionist Republicans in Illinois and attacked the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He denounced members of the Democratic Party for backing a law that “assumes there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another.” He believed that the law went against the founding American principle that “all men are created equal.” Lincoln was an abolitionist at heart, but he realized that the outlawing of slavery in states where it already existed might lead to civil war. Instead, he advocated outlawing the spread of slavery to new states. He hoped this plan would preserve the Union and slowly eliminate slavery by confining it to the South, where, he believed, “it would surely die a slow death.”Lincoln and his fellow abolitionists were dismayed when Kansans voted a pro-slavery candidate into Congress in November. As Lincoln’s political career picked up momentum over the next several years, he continually referred to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the seeming inevitability that Kansas should become a slave state as “a violence…it was conceived in violence, passed in violence, is maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence.”Lincoln continued to actively campaign against slavery in Kansas and helped to raise money to support anti-slavery candidates in that state.Meanwhile he continued his law practice and ran for the U.S. Senate in 1859. Although he lost to Democrat Stephen Douglas, Lincoln began to make a name for himself in national politics and earned increasing support from the North and abolitionists across the nation. It was this constituency that helped him win the presidency in 1860.

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The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.

• NH-01: In a major surprise, Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter announced on Friday that she would not seek re-election to New Hampshire’s swingy 1st Congressional District. Shea-Porter only just returned to the House after narrowly unseating GOP incumbent Frank Guinta last year in their fourth straight matchup: Guinta had unseated Shea-Porter in the 2010 GOP wave, but she returned the favor in 2012, only to lose to Guinta again in 2014. And given her persistence (and success) in trying to win back office so many times, it’s hugely unexpected to see the 64-year-old congresswoman choose to move on at this juncture.

Throughout her tenure, Shea-Porter has always been an ardent progressive despite representing a very swingy seat. However, she’s also a notoriously weak fundraiser, and when she has won, she’s never taken more than 52 percent of the vote. According to stolen documents released by WikiLeaks last year, national Democratic leaders weren’t very enthusiastic about her last comeback bid, and it seems they’ll belatedly get their wish for a new nominee. But whether the Democratic establishment liked her or not, Shea-Porter at least was a well-known quantity, and it’s far from clear who will step up to run in her place.

This seat, which includes Manchester (the state’s largest city) and much of the rest of east New Hampshire, may just be the most competitive and volatile congressional district in the nation. Not only did it change hands in five straight elections between 2008 and 2016, it’s jumped back and forth on the presidential level as well. In 2012, Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney just 50.2-48.6, while four years later, Donald Trump took it 48.2-46.6.

That’s due in large part to the fact that New Hampshire is home to an unusually high proportion of swing voters, making it more susceptible that most places to the national political climate, which will once again likely play a huge part in determining which party wins this seat next year. Indeed, back in 2006, Shea-Porter herself was a little-known and underfunded candidate who, after defeating the DCCC’s preferred candidate in a primary, ended up unseating Republican Rep. Jeb Bradley in a major shocker when that year’s Democratic wave hit New Hampshire.

State Sen. Andy Sanborn and Eddie Edwards, a former director of the state’s Liquor Commission, were already seeking the GOP nod before Shea-Porter hit the eject button. Shea-Porter was never the most intimidating incumbent and this seat was always going to be a top GOP target, so her decision to retire might not have a big impact on the Republican field. However, it’ll undoubtedly prompt much discussion on the Democratic side in terms who will run to succeed her.

Senate

• AZ-Sen: With Sen. Jeff Flake looking so weak in next year’s GOP primary, it’s not surprising that another Republican is making noises about challenging him. Wealthy attorney Jay Heiler, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents and a close ally of ex-Gov. Jan Brewer, tells the New York Times that he’s considering, arguing that Arizona needs a senator who will back Trump’s agenda whole-handedly. Ex-state Sen. Kelli Ward is already running, and Trump and his state allies have been talking to ex-state party chair Robert Graham about getting in. As we’ve noted before, if too many people run in the primary, it could split the anti-Flake vote enough to allow the incumbent to win with just a plurality.

However, national Republicans seem very pessimistic that anything can save Flake. The Times even reports that Flake “appears so weakened with Republican voters that there is increasingly talk of contingency planning should he not run again or seek re-election as an independent.” However, Flake has not even hinted publicly that he’s interested in doing anything but seeking the GOP nomination again next year.

Gubernatorial

• VA-Gov: Republicans really are going all-in on Willie Horton-style racism in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. GOP nominee Ed Gillespie has been attacking Democrat Ralph Northam over so-called “sanctuary cities” that don’t enforce federal immigration laws, even though Virginia has none. Republicans have engaged in racist demagoguery to argue a tiebreaking state Senate vote Northam had cast would allow sanctuary cities and open the door to the violent gang MS-13. Now, the country’s most prominent racist demagogue has weighed in after Donald Trump himself tweeted:

Republicans assuredly must be hoping to gain from racially tinged attacks that rile up their base. Of course, associating Gillespie with Trump may end up doing Northam a favor in a state that voted 50-44 for Hillary Clinton and where Trump’s approval rating is undoubtedly not high with swing voters.

Sanctuary cities aren’t the only subject where Gillespie is going hard-right on the culture wars. His latest ad blasts Northam for wanting to use “scarce tax dollars” to take down Confederate monuments in the wake of the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville. Gillespie says he “think[s] the monuments should stay up,” and Virginia should use that money to create jobs and raise pay for teachers and police. Meanwhile, Northam’s latest ad hits Gillespie for wanting to end a woman’s right to choose, playing an audio clip where Gillespie said earlier this year that he “would like to see abortion be banned.”

In addition to Trump, two former presidents have also ventured into the race recently. However, their approaches are notably different based on how popular or unpopular they were when they left office: George W. Bush is holding private fundraisers for Gillespie, while Barack Obama joined Northam on the public campaign stump.

House

• MA-03: Yet another Democrat is eyeing this open Merrimack Valley seat. State Rep. Linda Dean Campbell tells Politico that she’s “just considering” getting in, and won’t decide until the end of the year at the earliest. Campbell argued that her reputation as a moderate could be an asset to this seat, which backed Clinton 58-35 but has backed Republicans in down-ballot races.

• PA-18: With Republican Rep. Tim Murphy resigning in disgrace later this month, we have a special election in our future. Under Pennsylvania law, local party delegates will select their candidates for an upcoming special election rather than hold primaries. Trump carried this Pittsburgh-area seat 58-39 and the GOP nominee will be the clear favorite, though several Democrats are taking a look at this contest.

State Rep. Rick Saccone, whose Senate campaign seems to be going nowhere, has also talked about switching to this race. TribLive says that state Rep. Jason Ortitay also says he’s considering, though there’s no quote from Ortitay. City & State also writes that Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco and Allegheny County GOP head D. Raja (who is not to be confused with Communist Party of India head D. Raja) are “rumored” to be looking at this seat.

On the Democratic side, a few candidates were already running here before Murphy hit the eject button. The influential group VoteVets backed Navy veteran Pam Iovino on Wednesday, while former Allegheny County Council Member Mike Crossey and physician Robert Solomon are also in. However, while this seat isn’t particularly friendly to national Democrats, local Democrats still sometimes do well in this ancestrally blue area, and a few are talking about running. (Democrats will also choose their nominee though a convention.)

Westmoreland County Commissioner Gina Cerilli said on Thursday she’s “highly considering running” and has formed an exploratory committee, and that she was looking to decide within the next week. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Chris Potter also writes that federal prosecutor Conor Lamb, the nephew of Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb, is “said to be considering a run.” Democratic operatives also tell Politico that they expect others to get in, and they name Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce head Matt Smith, state Rep. Dan Miller, and Westmoreland County Commissioner Ted Kopas as possibilities.

Finally, we have one more note on the saga of soon-to-be-ex. Rep. Tim Murphy. Murphy, a loud opponent of abortion, had apparently encouraged his mistress to get one when she mistakenly thought she was pregnant with their child, and Murphy announced he was leaving Congress a day after the story broke. However, Politico writes that a different unsavory story about Murphy was what convinced him to resign. Murphy and his chief of staff Susan Mosychuk reportedly have a long history of being verbally abuse to staffers, with them often berating them as “worthless” and calling their work “garbage.”

Among other things, Mosychuk would yell at aides for taking bathroom and lunch breaks. Mosychuk also was earning a large paycheck for her work with Murphy’s re-election campaigns, much more than House rules allowed. Republican leaders reportedly were worried that that the House Ethics Committee would need to start investigating Murphy and Mosychuk’s actions, and they worried that a steady stream of negative stories about the now nationally-infamous congressman would be an unwelcome. However, by resigning, Murphy would avoid that investigation.

Thanks to the women in this room and people all across the country, we worked really hard — and it’s now been more than three years since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and I signed it into law. It’s been nearly a year since the Supreme Court upheld the law under the Constitution. And, by the way, six months ago, the American people went to the polls and decided to keep going in this direction. So the law is here to stay.

I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again by holding the responsible parties accountable, by putting in place new checks and new safeguards, and going forward, by making sure that the law is applied as it should be — in a fair and impartial way.

They exemplified the very idea of citizenship — that with our God-given rights come responsibilities and obligations to ourselves and to others. They embodied that idea. That’s the way they died. That’s how we must remember them. And that’s how we must live.